Sleepover
Sleepover is the sixth episode of Season 1 of Malcolm in the Middle and the sixth episode overall of the show. Plot Malcolm invites Stevie for a sleepover, which Stevie has never done before. Malcolm tells Lois that he's staying at Stevie's house, and finds that Stevie's parents, Kitty and Abe, are extremely overbearing. Kitty suggests that they do a puzzle instead of what they want, makes pizza without any sauce or toppings, and forces them to go to bed at 8:00 with sheets that are tucked in too tightly. She gives them exactly four minutes after she leaves to talk before "sleepy time." Abe, thinking he is a "cool dad," gives them an extra 30 seconds to talk. Malcolm and Stevie decide to sneak out to the arcade in the middle of the night. When Stevie's wheelchair gets stolen and the lazy arcade security guard refuses to help them, Stevie and Malcolm look around town and Malcolm uses other objects, such as a desk chair, a trash can lid, a shovel, a tire, and a shopping cart to help get Stevie around. At some point, Malcolm sees his dad coming out of an adult bookstore, but Hal mistakes them for homeless people. Malcolm and Stevie eventually find the hoodlums responsible for stealing Stevie's wheelchair. They chase them, the wheelchair is eventually abandoned, and Malcolm is able to retrieve it. As they are making their way back to Stevie's, they notice that his house is swarming with cop cars. Malcolm eventually abandons Stevie to face the punishment from his parents himself. Meanwhile, in order to get Hal and Lois to let him stay up late to watch a scary movie, Reese is tasked with getting Dewey to take a bath and put him in bed. After squabbling with Dewey to take a bath and chasing him around the yard, however, he finds himself in over his head when he finds out how smart Dewey is. Hal and Lois use the time they would have spent putting Dewey to bed to have a romantic night together. Reese ends up being tired from trying to wrangle Dewey and falling asleep in the hallway while Lois and Hal are in the bedroom. Meanwhile, Dewey watches the scary movie that Reese wanted to see. At Marlin Academy, Francis and his classmates are hazed by a group of senior classmen. He tells them off, thinking he is protected by his friend/bodyguard Stanley. After his bodyguard leaves to visit his nana who has a fever, Francis hides in the washing machine to escape the wrath of the seniors, but is found. He is tortured in a hazing ritual, but soon finds their ways too amateurish compared to the torture Lois puts him through. He tells the seniors all about what his mother has done to him and succeeds in scaring them and letting him go. They eventually adopt Lois' method for their future hazing rituals. Summary The show opens with the Wilkerson family about to take a family picture. Malcolm has sneaked in a picture of Francis so he wouldn't be left out, but him and Reese are arguing about who gets to hold the picture. Hal wants a beach scene, but Lois, having enough of Malcolm and Reese's fighting and the photographer not giving her a good deal in favor of an expensive one, orders everyone in their places to take the picture. Malcolm goes to Stevie's for a sleepover and is horrified by how controlling and over-protective his parents are, especially Kitty. They sneak out and go to an arcade, but when Stevie's wheelchair is stolen they spend the rest of the night working together to figure out how to get Stevie around and getting his wheelchair back. Meanwhile, at Marlin Academy, Francis is being used as weights by Stanley until he uses the time to take a break. When he goes in the closet to get a snack, he finds Finley hiding in there. Francis asks him why he is in the closet and Finley tells him that he's been marked by a cult known as "The Brothers of the Apocalypse". He thinks Finley is being ridiculous because to him it's just a couple of seniors with limited to no imaginations. He tells Francis that's easy for him to say that because he has Stanley protecting him and isn't holding a doll head called "Poqito Cabesa". Finley refuses to come out of hiding and asks him to turn in his math homework for him. Soon the senior cult arrive to get him as Francis and Stanley talk about them. At the Wilkerson's house, Reese really wants to stay up late and watch a horror movie, but his mother challenges him to an arm-wrestle to prove that he's old enough to extend his bedtime. He loses miserably, and then tries to prove his maturity in other ways. Lois then decides to put Reese to the test and if he can give Dewey his bath and put him to bed, he can stay up late to watch a scary movie. Hal and Lois giggle at the impossible task that Reese now has, and decide to enjoy the little bit of alone time they'll have while Reese is struggling with Dewey. At Marlin Academy, Francis confronts the leader, Stevenson and tells him to stop the cult activities as he finds them quite annoying. Stanley has just left to be with his dying grandmother and soon Francis is marked by senior class-men. At first, he's scared, but comes to find their ways of torture amateurish. Francis then tells them about the kinds of torture Lois put him through. The senior class-men now realizing that their ways of torture wasn't working and decides to try a new one. Replacing the picture of a tortured man in a straitjacket to that of Lois, the cult uses her ways of discipline to get the other students to do better in school. Hal goes off to a pornographic bookstore to get some supplies, and actually passes Malcolm pushing Stevie in a grocery cart. However, he's so focused on the task at hand that he doesn't catch them outside the Kenarban's house and gives Stevie some spare change and heads home. While Hal and Lois are romping in the bedroom, Reese is passed out in the hallway and Dewey is happily watching the horror movie in his pajamas. All is well, Malcolm is able to retrieve Stevie's wheelchair and he's pushing him home. As they were coming closer to his house, Stevie says that he's never been in trouble and he's looking forward to see what it looks like. When they arrive, they notice that there are cop cars parked right in front of Stevie's driveway. Suddenly, Malcolm just disappears (possibly afraid of getting busted by the cops and most likely getting berated by Hal and Lois). Cast *Jane Kaczmerek as Lois *Bryan Cranston as Hal *Christopher Kennedy Masterson as Francis *Justin Berfield as Reese *Erik Per Sullivan as Dewey *Catherine Lloyd Burns as Caroline Miller *Frankie Muniz as Malcolm Guest Stars Recurring *Karim Prince as Stanley *Arjay Smith as Ken Finley *Craig Lamar Traylor as Stevie Kenarban *Merrin Dungey as Kitty Kenarban *Gary Anthony Williams as Abe Kenarban Cameos *Sheff Otis as Cadet Stevenson *Chad Brannon as Cadet Brannon *Scotch Ellis Loring as Photographer *Nick Gaza as Security Guard *Bart McCarthy as Homeless Man *Ahmad Stoner as Thief 1 *Joey Simmrin as Thief 2 Trivia *This episode is Kitty Kenarban and Abe Kenarban's first appearances in the series. **Merrin Dungey, the actress who played Kitty Kenarban, had previously played the role of Malcolm's original teacher in the Pilot episode that's technically her first appearance. *This episode is also the first appearance of Cadet Finley. *Hal is revealed to have pupaphobia, the fear of puppets. *Hannibal Lecter, from movies such as Silence of the Lambs is seen in pictures in the Marlin Academy "torture chamber". *This is the only episode where Malcolm doesn't talk to the viewer. Category:Episodes Category:season 1 Category:Episodes focusing on Stevie